Without proper treatment, half of the 370,000 children newly infected with HIV last year will die before they reach their second birthday. But very few medicines are designed and adapted specifically for children, and are affordable and practical to use in the places where they live. The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) recently announced a new project to help develop appropriate HIV drugs for children.

New research has proved conclusively that treatment of HIV can reduce the transmission of the disease from one person to another by 96 percent. In other words, HIV treatment is also HIV prevention. The UN Summit on HIV/AIDS starts on June 8 and officials will decide on a blueprint for the next decade of the global response to the epidemic. Will global leaders act now to save millions of lives and prevent millions of new infections?

Treating children with HIV goes beyond putting them on medication. Patient support specifically targeted to children helps motivate them to stick with their treatment regimen. But there has yet to be a scientific study to help determine the best practices for providing this support.

In Kenya, more than 22,000 children were infected with HIV in 2009. The district of Homa Bay, in rural western Kenya, has the country’s highest HIV prevalence rate. MSF is working to stop the spread of the disease in Homa Bay with its prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) program.

Generic versions of antiretrovirals, or ARVs, that cost a fraction of the price of brand medicines make it possible for MSF to treat 160,000 people living with HIV around the world. Eighty percent of the ARVs we use come from India, and millions of others in developing countries depend on India-made generics as well. But the European Commission has begun directing its trade policies in a way that could stamp out the production of lifesaving generics in India. MSF has launched a global public campaign to tell Europe to back off, and to honor its commitments to global health.

Patients in developing countries who will soon need new treatment regimens for HIV/AIDS will be even more unlikely to receive them, now that international donors are walking away from their funding promises.